History Drag cars in motion.......picture thread.

Mercuryjunky I envy you.

 

wow mercjunkie! great find!

 

love this thread!
can someone explain the disc in the front wheels of some of these rails, and why there only on one side.

 

The disc was used to break the beam and only one was needed to do this.

408 AA/D

 

The disk, it's a beam breaker. The light beam at the starting line is 3 inches up. The old spoke wheels would sometimes let some light by around the spokes as you staged tripping the red light. Easy solution was to add a shield thet would block the light. It is only needed on one side since, well, you should get it now.

 

I knew this picture looked familiar!



Marty
Marysville, OH

 

That is one of my favorite models.

 

Its one of my favorite dragsters. Hope to recreate it someday.

 

I wonder if this model drew more inspiration from the Romeo Palemides full-bodied dragster? (can't find a picture, maybe someone else has one?)

 

I didn't post it here, but maybe there is someone here who can help. I just posted a new pic for this week in our Ol' Drag Photos page. I believe the photo is of a car owned / raced by Dwayne Engness before his Hot Sauce line of cars. If someone here can help verify my fuzzy memory I would really appreciate it. It is the last photo at the bottom of the page.

http://www.twintownterrors.com/ol-drag-photos.html

Thanks

 

Had these in my files Dave...

1958 with a short body like those above^^^



1960 with a higher more stylized body....(Pete Ogden in the seat).



...now with a crank driven blower.

 

The injected version reminds me a little of the option offered in the AMT 3 in 1 Dragster/Altered kit. Note driver Ogden taking off without having pulled down his goggles. One fat bug in the eye would send him screaming.

 

Which cell featured a car you thought as once having been belonged to Engness? I recall he had a cool comp elim type dragster that featured both AA/Comp T shell, and dragster body that enclosed the chute. Car had a blown Chevy and ran either AA/Comp or BB/GD depending on whcih body was being mounted.

 

Bottom row third one over from the left. If you hold your mouse over it the comments say Dwayne Engness Indy 1969. I put that in the comments to make it easier to find until further notice. Thanks for looking into it.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGkb0D7cSlI
just saw this tonight, kinda cool.
sorry if it has been posted before...

 

San Fernando, 1961....Berry & Hughes. Eventually ran some highly competitive T/F cars.

 

spammers infect everything.

 

"1961?" I would say 1964-65 as there is a black Pontiac in the background of that 64-65 era, and my own recollection for whats that worth. This car was a fuel burner that could beat the AA/FA's because it went straight and just whissped the tires instead of emulsifying them. Also note the level engine position which added to its stability. These guys later fielded the famed Berry Bros. and Hughes top fueler, the last competetive FED.

 

That GTO looking car was an early prototype
Just per chance, were either of these the same Berry that later teamed with Dave Settles.... ?
Tom S. in Tn.

 

As per the 70's Funnycar site, Engness migrated from the supercharged gas dragster classes to AA/FC. I have seen a picture of his AA/Comp car racing Al Bergler for class at 1968 Winternationals here on this site. Also, Engness was from North Dakota. Thus I dont he had the time or inclination to campain an injected Astra bodied altered type car. Maybe he built the motor, but I dont think he campainged the coupe for it would be a step down from what he was doing.

 

Berry Bros, Settles and Hughes is correct sir. They went a few solid rounds at either 72 or 73 Winternationals.

 

Uhhh....1964. (I've always had trouble with my 1's & 4's).

 

Thanks.

 

I just found the picture of Irwindale on page 1426, posting 28510, the ironic thing is the empty lot on the other side of route 210 is still an empty lot today, wish they would have built the brewery over there.

 

The land north of the 210 fwy. is flood control land adjacent to the San Gabriel river. I doubt anything will ever be built there.

 

Dean, Al Davis got $10 million for not building a football stadium in that pit. What is really sad is the strip at Fontana is having trouble with holding events. The courts you know. Most of the organizations just can't make enought money to keep the place running without the really fast and loud cars. Seems we have had this problem in So Cal a long time.....

 

there are not enough cars out there to keep a dragstip alive.

they have a hard enough time filling 16 car fields at the national events. people went to irwindale, ocir, lions, etc. because they could watch a bunch of non-door slammers race all night.

the days of 64 car fields are long gone, which is just one reason why local dragstips are not as prolific as they once were.

 

While I haven't been able to view all the posts so I don't know if Archie Aire's blown FED fuel International car has shown up here on this great site. I believe he owned Achie's Garage in maybe Colton CA. I only saw the car once at Riverside, thought he was a real pioneer, don't recall if he ever made a clean run. I think the car was a dark red shade, body between the driver and fire wall was flat on the top, 45 degree corners and slab sides.

 

Thanks WCD, and I vividly recall looking at the National Dragster every week to see what them and a couple other cars were doing to pro comp, because we were building a dragster for pro comp during then.
I find it interesting to see these people early roots since I never knew of any west coast history prior to joining here. Everything that raced here was stick welded and home made unless it had migrated east through various hands from one of the west coast fab shops. Not many pictures of them.
Tom S. in Tn.

 

Yea, the West coast guys were lucky as most all the more prominent car builders either originated out here, or migrated here after experiencing a balmy winter day. I think though by the late 60's all this became moot, as each region of the country hosted a bevy of competetive well built cars in the various classes. Rod Shop teams being an excellent example.